Fault lines: Venezuela’s paltry earthquake response
The Intelligence from The Economist
The Economist
4.5 • 3.7K Ratings
🗓️ 1 July 2026
⏱️ 22 minutes
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Summary
Government help was thin on the ground just after the country’s worst quakes in a century. The America-backed regime is thus on literal and figurative shaky ground. A food-delivery robot trial in England represents the future of the service. And why Harlan Coben’s proliferating thrillers are cheesy but gripping.
Guests and host:
- Kinley Salmon, Latin America correspondent
- Alex Hern, AI writer
- Catherine Nixey, culture correspondent
- Jason Palmer, co-host of “The Intelligence”
Topics covered:
- Venezuela earthquakes, disaster response
- delivery robots
- Harlan Coben
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The Economist. |
| 0:09.5 | Hello and welcome to the intelligence from The Economist. |
| 0:12.7 | I'm Jason Palmer. |
| 0:19.1 | Today on the show, the frontier of food delivery robots and the mysteries and mystery of Harlan Coben. |
| 0:31.3 | But first... |
| 0:48.3 | ...and... But first... It's been one week since two earthquakes rattled Venezuela, the largest in a century. |
| 0:56.0 | Yesterday, rescuers climbed among the rubble in the state of Ligwara, Alainzio! |
| 0:57.0 | Calling for silence so that any cries from the wreckage could be heard. |
| 1:04.0 | Then, a sliver of good news. |
| 1:13.8 | A three-year-old boy was pulled out alive. |
| 1:19.7 | It's a story that will only get rarer as days tick by. |
| 1:23.6 | But volunteers, like Juan Andrade, say they will keep searching. |
| 1:28.3 | Nobody is with life, but the effect of the life, I have still intact. I'm going to take my family and I'll |
| 1:32.3 | say the people that we need to |
| 1:33.3 | and we're going to |
| 1:35.3 | he hadn't yet pulled out anyone alive that day, |
| 1:38.3 | but he says his faith is still intact that he will get his family out. |
| 1:42.3 | The dangers aren't over. An aftershock on Monday made a bad situation worse. |
| 1:47.8 | The death toll is nearing 2000. |
| 1:51.1 | It's pretty grim still in Venezuela. |
| 1:55.6 | Italy's salmon is a Latin America correspondent for the economist. |
| 1:59.5 | The morgue's in La Guayra, one of the hardest-hit areas near the capital of Caracas, |
... |
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